Three hundred –fifty members SCCA members gathered on Feb 6^th at the Oceanside Inn & Suites for the annual Southeast Division Meeting and Awards Banquet. This was the 16^th consecutive year that the meeting was held at Jekyll Island, Georgia and featured the first ever Spec Miata Seminar. SCCA members from as far as away as Kansas City attended the all day Spec Miata Seminar which was highlighted by discussions and demonstrations presented by Tom Fowler of OPM, Bob Thornton of Race Engineering and Pepe Pombo of Pombo Racing.

Meetings for race, rally, solo, publicity and web development commenced Friday afternoon and concluded Sunday morning with the Division annual business meeting. Race meetings were conducted by Divisional Administrators for Timing & Scoring, Registration, EV, Pit & Grid, Tech, Drivers School, the ECR series, the SARRC series and Race Administration.  In addition, there was an all day meeting for Division Stewards. A special presentation was made for the Tire Rack Street Survival program while tech specialists had an opportunity to gain SFI Certification by successfully completing the SFI test.

As always, the Awards Banquet was the biggest event of the weekend with 315 conventioneers in attendance for the dinner, awards and door prizes. Attendees were treated to an entertaining and informative talk by SCCA President and CEO, Jeff Dahnert.  Guests included SCCA VP, Howard Duncan, Brian Ghidinelli from MotorsportReg.com and Richard & Kay McCloy from Roebling Road. Special guests attending were 18 members of the Cool Shirt family. A special presentation was made to Eileen Shafer in honor of Rich Shafer, the founder of Cool Shirt and a long time Time Trials competitor and sponsor. Rich was fatally injured in October at the Crow Mountain Hillclimb. From this time on, the SEDiv Time Trials Event of the Year Award will be named the Rich Shafer Award.  In addition, Rich was inducted into the SEDiv Time Trials Hall of Fame.

Atlanta Region retiring Executive Steward Rick Mitchell was presented the Robert W Clark Award for his contribution in more than one area and service for a long period of time. The Jacque Holland Award was presented to North Carolina Region T & S Chief Anna Neave Chrissman. The Director’s Award for that something extra was presented to Richard & Kay McCloy and the Bryan Webb Award was presented CFR Steward Bob Shafer. The John C Reuter Award, the SEDiv top Award, was presented to CFR member and Convention Registrar Joyce Hayward.

Nine SEDiv National race Champions were in attendance to accept their yearend Awards. In addition, DSR Runoffs winner and SCCA National Champion Gary Crook and T2 Runoffs winner and National Champion Don Knowles were awarded jackets for their accomplishment in 2009. Champions in the TireRack Solo Championship, Cool Shirt Time Trials winners and ECR winners also accepted awards. Tennessee Valley Region was presented the Wurzbach Award for Time Trial event management and Tennessee Valley Region and Alabama Region received the Shafer Award.  FP driver Paul Kullman was presented the Jim Fitzgerald Award for his winning drive at the 2009 SIC race in October. The final awards of the night were the South Atlantic Road Race Championship, SARRC, Awards. Twenty eight class Champions were in attendance to accept their awards. In addition another 26 award winners accepted plaques for their position finishes.

To conclude the evening, door prizes were presented to over 60 attendees. Door prizes included American Express gift cards, gift certificates from Cool Shirt, gift certificates from PST Driveshafts, and a vast array of race entries, solo entries, time trial entries, PDX entries and race test days all provided by SCCA Regions, Central Florida, Florida, Buccaneer, Atlanta, South Carolina, Central Carolinas, North Carolina and Tennessee Valley/Chattanooga.

Plans are already underway for the 2011 Meeting which again will be conducted at the Oceanside Inn & Suites and is tentatively scheduled for January 21-23, 2011. Contact Convention Chairman Jim Creighton for details.